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The Plexus Group is an established oil and gas engineering, and service business based in Aberdeen, with an office in London and a presence in Houston, Texas through PDT. Plexus began trading on AIM in December 2005. The Plexus Group has developed and patented a method of engineering for oil and gas field wellheads and connectors, named POS GRIP™, which involves deforming one tubular member against another to effect gripping and sealing.
POS-GRIP technology was invented by the Plexus Group's founder, Ben van Bilderbeek, an accomplished engineer and successful entrepreneur with over 30 years' industry experience, and a track record of developing and commercialising specialised wellhead and drilling equipment.
The Plexus Group, which joined AIM in December 2005, raising £11 million in the process, is an oilfield services and engineering company based in Aberdeen. Plexus was founded by engineer Ben van Bilderbeek, who used his in-depth knowledge of wellhead systems to invent POS GRIP. This is an innovative wellhead and connectors system, which deforms one tubular pipe against another in such a way as to create a substantial and effective metal-to-metal seal.
It is a simple and neat mechanical engineering solution to a problem that has made it difficult for oil companies to access high pressure/high temperature reservoirs: conventional seals tend to have a small contact point between the two pieces of metal, which renders the pipe more vulnerable to buckling or corrosion, particularly when the well encounters very high temperatures and pressures. POS GRIP is safer, more reliable and has a lower unit and installation cost than traditional well-head solutions. This makes it ideal for an industry which has to work in increasingly hostile conditions in order to find the hydrocarbons that underpin our way of life.
The order book confirms that POS GRIP works. It has now been used in more than 100 oil and gas wells operated by some of the heavyweights of the international oil and gas industry including BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips and BHP Billiton. It has won a breakthrough contract to supply BP’s US$4.1 billion Shah Deniz development in the Caspian Sea – which should generate revenues of £6.5 million in revenues over a three-year period - and expanded its geographic reach with new business in Egypt, Brunei, Malaysia and Trinidad. The company is targeting further expansion in the Middle East, the Far East and the US Gulf of Mexico.
It continues to win new business, particularly with companies targeting high pressure/high temperature (HP/HT) reservoirs. In September 2007, for example, the AIM company picked up two key contracts, with Norsk Hydro in the Norwegian North Sea and AGR Petroleum in the UK North Sea, that together will generate almost £1 million in revenues in 2008. The following month Plexus bagged a HP/HT £700,000 order with GDF Britain.
Plexus has also moved into the mainstream production wellhead market with its proprietary HG wellhead and expects to see this business division grow quickly. It also plans to extend the range of equipment it offers to offer a “bundled” package of wellhead equipment, valves and Xmas trees. The company is also actively involved in developing state-of-the-art technologies to enhance the industry’s deep formation drilling capability.
| Non -Executive Chairman | Robert Fredrik Martin Adair |
| Chief Executive | Bernard Herman Van Bilderbeek |
| Finance Director | Graham Paul Stevens |
| Technical Director | Craig Francis Bryce Hendrie |
| Non-Executive Director | Augusto Licinio Carmona da Mota |
| Non-Executive Director | Jerome Jeffery Thrall |
Company AddressPlexus House
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CapitalNumber of shares currently in issue: 80,182,569 |
Nominated BrokersBrewin Dolphin Securities Limited | Nominated AdvisorsBrewin Dolphin Securities Limited |
| Mutual Holdings Limited | 74.83% |
| Skye Investments Limited | 4.37% |
| The Bank of New York (Nominees) Limited | 4.23% |
| Nortrust Nominees Limited | 3.16% |